The surprise Veikkausliiga leaders from Jyväskylä take on the reigning champions
at the Sonera Stadium at 6:30pm tonight. JJK remain unbeaten with sixteen points after six matches
while HJK sit third with twelve points. Therefore, even with a limited grasp of arithmetic, the
hosts are in for a match they need to win.
Did you miss NFN's three-part Veikkausliiga preview? Don't worry, you can find it here, just
click on the linka. Part I -Part II - Part III.
Nordic Football News has once again brought you the most definitive Veikkausliiga preview
concievable. Now for the final part, our standings prediction.
It's time for the annual NFN Veikkausliiga preview. As with last year, a three part preview,
starting with the title contenders. Want to guess who we think will win?
Enough has been said of the tumultuous Veikkausliiga offseason with match-fixing and
money-taking allegations that I'll try to steer clear of it for the purposes of this preview.
The Finnish league has made it all the way to the 8th round, which makes us here at the NFN
Ivory Tower quite ready and willing to single out some teams for harsh criticism. We could also
carve out the positives out of some teams' performances, but who wants to read good news
anyway?
Friday 7 PM
Tampere United (5th) FC Lahti (12th)
Tampere United had to make a jailbreak on Tuesday because AC/DC invaded their home ground.
Janne Oivio continues his skewed coverage of Veikkausliiga following the preview package
published last week.
It's ridiculously early to do a power ranking, but I don't care. Having just completed NFN's
Massive Veikkausliiga Preview I was so delighted with myself that I decided to begin a running
feature which will run hopefully every other week.
Since there is no hope for compromise amongst NFN Finnish "experts" and Veikkaaja decided not to
listen to my infinite wisdom, I've decided to use this space to tell everyone how the upcoming
Veikkausliiga season will play out. So listen up.
This season ranks among the most interesting in recent memory.
Veikkausliiga heads north today, with long journeys deep into the countryside for HJK and
Tampere United. RoPS, KuPS and VPS all have nice grounds but terrible pitches, and the difficulty
of getting results there has been evident in recent seasons, with VPS acting as a bit of a bogey
side for TamU and KuPS getting a memorable 3-2 win against HJK late last season to help them to a
play-off spot.
The preview of the sxth round should take many forms, the first one being a homage to Pasi
Rautiainen. This Monday's match between Honka and TPS in Tapiola turned into something of a media
event, with most of the Finnish under-21 squad presented with roses for their achievement in
failing to win a single game or point, and scoring a solitary penalty during their three matches in
Sweden.
Watching Tampere United struggle to a single goal victory over JJK at Ratina yesterday, it
occurred to me just how astonishing it is that anyone watches Finnish football. The first half was
enjoyably predictable, as TamU attacked and JJk attempted to string a few passes together. JJK's
South Korean striker Nam was brought off injured, and someone curled a shot against the bar for the
Jyväskyläns (it could very possibly have been Koskela), and Rafinha got the winner when
Sinisalo's headed past his own keeper, but overall it was a pretty run of the mill Veikkausliiga
match.
Last night, a great night from brand new KuPS signing Dickson Nwakaeme helped KuPS to a 3-0 win
over RoPS, while TamU did exactly what was needed and overcame JJK with the scoreline 1-0. A more
detailed round-up is on the way once the round is completed, but for now we are taking a look at
today's games
FC Inter (7th) FC Lahti (9th), Sunday 6:30 PM
As the league table indicates, both sides are underperforming.
Sorry for the recent silence as far as NFN's Finland section is concerned. If you're wondering
why we're so quiet over the U21 European Championships, we have a simple explanation: Egan is
following the tournament in Sweden as it unfolds, and is covering the proceedings for ESPN
Soccernet. Meanwhile, I will treat you to a Veikkausliiga preview.
Veikkausliiga is kind of in the middle of a break because of the U21 European Championships.
"Kind of" here means that in the public view, the league is on a break, but at the same time some
fixtures are being played. A good way to get rid of spectators, I have to say.
I am just about to hop on the VPS bandwagon. They scored two goals against RoPS on Sunday, a
rare treat for their fans, and rumours are circulating that the central market place in Vaasa has
already been booked for VPS' title celebrations in October.
Still, Inter are too strong for the Ostrobothnian side.
It's not April Fools' Day, and I'm not kidding for any other reason either. See for yourself.
Tony Björk found the net on the 12th minute and Antonio Inutile doubled the lead 11 minutes later.
The two goals were enough to leave RoPS all alone in the relegation spot, and anger the fans. A
thread demanding the resignation of CEO Jouko Kiistala was soon opened on Finland's biggest
football message board, and the fans might have a point.
TPS basically have the edge in this game, but it all depends on how they play. If they build on
last week's win over VPS and produce another confident display, they should be able to win the
game, but if they are inefficient and start pushing it, the game will turn out much more difficult,
even more so as IFK Mariehamn really know how to play against "better" teams.
This is a tough one to predict. As ever, it all depends on Muurinen's team selection, and the
choice between the quick and mobile strikers or the less mobile Mäkelä. He played Mäkelä in the
last game, and they got a disappointing draw against Honka, so maybe he will go with a
Popovitch-Parikka combination for the JJK game.
This is, somewhat surprisingly, a top of the table clash. IFK have already beaten last season's
champions, drawn with one of the favourites for this season, and had a regulation win over wooden
spoon-chasers KuPS. This puts them level on points with HJK, who dropped their two points at home
to draw specialists TPS.
Mason Trafford and Mariehamn felt a sense of deja vu as they were knocked out of the Finnish Cup by
KuPS while Aaron Wheeler and KooTeePee were unable to pull off a second straight upset in the
competition.
It was a tough week for the yanks in the Finnish Veikkausliiga as Daniel Antunez lost at home to
KuPS and Greg Echkardt and VPS were smacked around by TPS.
Daniel Antunez and Inter will try to get past their Europa League disappointment as they host KuPS
while Greg Eckhardt and VPS face an important mid-standings visit to TPS.
It was a tough weekend for Daniel Antunez and FC Inter who slipped at home versus Tampere United
while Greg Eckhardt failed to see any action for VPS versus KuPS.
Metalurh Donestk and Slaven Belupo both had dominating victories (7-0 & 6-0) in the first legs
of UEFA Europa League Second Qualifying Round on July 19, 2012. Overall, most of the home teams won
the opening matches with the exception of KuPS, Red Star Belgrade, Gomel, Anorthosis, Kalmar FF,
Viktoria Plzen, and Dila Gori who all won on the road.
A round of Veikkausliga games on Monday night will put Etchu Tabe and RoPS on the spot against
struggling KuPS and see the Yanks at Mariehamn try to break their five-game winless streak.
English homophobia: uniting Brazilians and Finns Finnish football descended into a bout of
televised homophobia this week. The match between KuPS and HJK featured HJK's Brazilian star
Rafinha testing his language skills on opponent Pexi Oravainen. He was caught on camera unleashing
a torrent of homophobic abuse towards the KuPS.
Lawrence Smith is expected to get the starting nod from coach Petri Vuorinen as VPS head inland to
Kuopio to take on 12th place KuPS at the Magnum Areena on Sunday evening.
